Luftwaffe Kill Markings On Tail

[Jim Oxley]

Am curious why the Germans adopted the 'bar' marking on the rudder, rather than the almost universal national symbol claim marking depicted under the cockpit by most other air forces in WWII. Even the conservative British adopted that. Anyone know why? Did the Germans, even at the start of the war, realise that their fighter pilots would end up claiming huge numbers?

And when did the Germans start painting the national emblem of their enemies on top of the bar markings? There are a number of photo's around showing plain bar markings in the early stages of the war, even though the Germans faced Dutch, Norwegian, French and British opponents. Did it start with the Soviet invasion? A way of differentiating victories over British versus Russian? Or earlier with the Greek and Yugoslavia invasions?

[Evgeny Velichko]

Hallo.
One of photos I have, show 1 Polish and 1 British victory bar... It must be an early-war photo.

[Johannes]

Hi Jim

Can't say why the bar marking began, but they were used in Spain........without national marking I believe, so they probably evolved. Different Geschwader/Staffel and even pilots used different markings like "viermots" "unconfirmed"(see Herbert Rollwage).

Regarding did they know they would acquire such numbers, I would say not. Not all "100" plus aces started again at "100" with bars again after that number, in fact with some pilots like Hermann Graf and Alfred Grislawski they started again after there latest decoration i.e Graf "172" then bars for later.
I would guess that the National markings are often missing from Russian only bars because they are all the same, whereas somebody on all fronts might want to distinguish between fronts/Nations. I think also the bars were only on the left side of the rudder, but somebody a bit more qualified should confirm/deny that.
Guess also "propaganda" would love the "100" rudder marking.
Many pilots didn't mark at all, Günther Rall springs to mind, and Gerhard Barkhorn ceased after a while.

I do know that after Spain....during WW2 the Spainish bars were not to be included i.e you started again. With Werner Molders he had fifteen bars in Spain, painted just before the rudder(evolution?) but onlt fourteen were confirmed despite them all being well documented, and crash-sites visited.

Oskar-Heinz Bär had unconfirmed in his "200", but I do believe that Hermann Goring who had refused his Brillianten award seven times, probably, somehow was involved in stopping confirmations for him???!!!!.....perhaps Bär knew in his own mind that they had fallen!

Guess you have the "rudder markings" book?

Kind Regards

Johannes

PS

The National marking certainly were in operation during Poland, so started at the outset of WW2

[sirbob]

Here is an example currently on ebay. I will let the experts argue whether any are from Spain.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Jagdflie...-/142414388449